210. Who Can You Believe?

Next evening, when we return from Beirut to the teachers’ apartment in Tripoli, there is another meeting for men only in progress. After a long talk by the guru which I follow as carefully as only a stranger in a strange land can, the teacher pauses and asks me, through Adam, if I have any questions. I say, “Yes” and ask him about the truth of the “horror stories” Adam told me during our drive.

The teacher replies, “These stories are true.” and proceeds, through interpreter Adam, to recount the long history of a Jewish conspiracy against the non-Jewish world. History, as he tells it, is mostly a “Zionist mafia” plot to control everything.


Well, I am 100% sure that Adam and the guru are sincere in their belief, but I doubt if this Lebanese Moslem history lesson would be considered very accurate outside of this particular culture. Still, if they think it is true, believe it is true, than it is true for them! Historic perspective is a peculiar thing because who knows the true facts of history? In school I was taught to honor Abraham Lincoln as one of the greatest of Americans, yet I also recall a little ditty my “Confederate” mother used to sing when I was a little boy: “Jeff Davis rides a fine black horse, Abe Lincoln rides a mule. Jeff Davis is a gentleman, Abe Lincoln is a fool!”


Just WHO you gonna believe?


Still, I promise to stay at least a week with the guru to learn more about “The Way” as he calls it.

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